In Jaitley, the saffron party loses a gentle giant who had admirers across the political spectrum, and one of its foremost strategist-intellectual and a consensus builder
In Arun Jaitley unfortunate demise on Saturday not only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost one of its foremost intellectuals and strategist but the country also suffered the loss of a gentle political giant who had admirers across political spectrum and respected even by the opposition for his calm temperament and consensus building approach.
Though not from the original RSS stock, Jaitley got attracted to BJP's erstwhile avatar, the Jana Sangh during his student days in Delhi University when he became President of Delhi University Student's Union (DUSU) on ABVP ticket in 1974. Jaitley's attraction towards the Jana Sangh grew further as he also believed in abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and was a votary of complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India.
DUSU politics saw Jaitley entering the struggle phase during emergency. He was jailed for 19 months and encountered various leaders including L K Advani who saw enormous possibilities in the young leaders and finally baptised him in the Jana Sangh in 1977.
Jaitley soon emerged as one of the most successful lawyers of Delhi and at one point of time was the maximum income tax payee lawyer in the capital. BJP was quick to use the fantastic oratory and argument skills of the gifted Jaitley and made him a Rajya Sabha member in 1999 and the chief spokesperson of the party.
Many still remember the passionate speech that Jaitley gave on the impeachment motion of Justice Soumitra Sen in the parliament.
Articulate, Versatile
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| Articulate, knowledgeable and versatile, Arun Jaitley was BJP’s trouble-shooter in crisis |
| He contributed immensely to BJP’s emergence as a key force among middle class |
| He handled tricky political situations with ease, worked out winning electoral strategies |
Jaitley's skills as a skilful orator saw the BJP through tested times when it sat in the opposition as he along with Sushma Swaraj and others managed to give several sleepless nights to the Congress in power during 10 years of rule during UPA-I and UPA-II regime. He effectively put the Congress on the mat on question of corruption and in building up a nationwide consensus against the Congress "dynastic" leadership that finally led to its fall and saw the rise of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014.
In power too, Jaitley accomplished several difficult jobs for the party with ease and finesse that many would have considered impossible. Many political observers' credit Jaitley for his acumen to forge alliance between Nitish Kumar and Modi despite being diehard opponents. The move proved to be a masterstroke in the spreading BJP's influence not only in Bihar but elsewhere giving the BJP the scope to stitch alliances with even ideological opponents.
His role as the harbinger of one of the biggest changes of One Nation One Tax – the GST - will be long remembered for his skills to bring so many divergent political parties on one platform. His political adversaries count him among those who were suave and polished enough to patiently argue for building a consensus and even after crossing swords could agree to disagree without any malice.
Demo Man
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| As Finance Minister in Modi govt 1.0, Jaitley oversaw implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a major tax reform that had huge electoral implications |
| The sensitive decision of demonetisation was also taken by the Modi govt while he presided over the ministry |
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